


hold your voice, hold your breath

by displayheartcode



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Canon Temporary Character Death, Coda, M/M, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-04
Updated: 2020-08-04
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:42:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25713751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/displayheartcode/pseuds/displayheartcode
Summary: Hold onto your voice. Hold onto your breath. Don’t make a noise, don’t leave the room until I come back from the dead for you. I will come back from the dead for you.- Richard Siken
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 5
Kudos: 119





	hold your voice, hold your breath

**Author's Note:**

> :-D

Joe cradles Nicky’s head between his hands, feeling the blood and brain matter tangled in clumps. 

“Wake up,” he pleads. He says it again in Arabic, in Latin, in any language that transforms it into an incantation. The image goes off like a skipping film reel in his head, the gas filling the air, Nicky dragging Keane down, the ghost of Andy’s immortality in every action they take, then the gunshot. The moment that made Joe’s heart stop.

Nicky hasn’t waken up yet.

How much time has passed? Which one of them is next to have their divinity stripped from their blood?

 _Not without me,_ Joe thinks. _You go when I go._

He holds his voice. He holds his breath. He doesn't make a noise as he forces himself to look away.

This is always the hardest part. 

Joe nearly misses the way Nicky’s breath rattles in his lungs. The resurrection is quick this time. A gasp. The jolt of life that goes through him like lightning. Nicky is staring at him again with his sea-gray eyes, the cuts on his face already half-healed with a steady pulse in his throat.

“Yusuf,” he rasps. He reaches up and steadies himself by gripping Joe’s forearms.

In the background, the sound of gunshots grows louder. An alarm is blaring somewhere.

Joe laughs something bitter. “I just—I didn’t think you were going to make it.” He touches the side of Nicky’s face. “Nicolo, my Nicolo. It’s time to get up.”


End file.
